Finns to the Finish: Winter Fun & Quirky Games

The Finns do love their silly games. Each July since 1992, the town of Sonkajärvi hosts the World Championships of the Finnish sport of “wife carrying”—called eukonkanto. And it’s pretty much exactly like it sounds. Male competitors carry their wives on their backs through an obstacle course in the hopes of being the first to stagger across the finish line and claim the grand prize: their wife’s weight in beer.

Run for your wife!

Carry me to the beer!

Although it sounds ridiculous—by all accounts, it’s actually hilarious—competitors take the Wife Carrying World Championship very seriously. They train hard and develop their own techniques and strategies—they have to, as the event requires strength and stamina to complete a course punctuated with challenges like logs, hay bales, and shallow pools while carrying a dead weight of more than 100 pounds. They also have to practice their “carry” technique—either the classic piggyback, the over the shoulder (fireman’s carry), or the increasingly popular Estonian-carry, where the wife dangles upside down on her husband’s back with her legs over his neck and shoulders. You don’t want to drop her too often either, as each instance incurs a 15-second penalty.

Honey, would you get off my back please

While it is not mandatory that your partner be your “wife,” she must be at least 17 years old and weigh a minimum of 108 pounds—any less, and the difference is made up by her having to wear a weighted down rucksack. But the final rule captures the true spirit of the event: All participants must have fun.

It may come as a surprise how popular Finland’s crazy sport has become. In fact, it has gone international. Similar “Wife Carrying” competitions are now held annually in the UK, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Germany, and the United States.

But who came up with “wife carrying” in the first place?

Like all great sports, wife carrying has a fascinating origin story. There may—or may not—have been an actual brigand living in the woods of Finland in the late 1800s by the name of Herkko Rosvo-Ronkainen, otherwise known as “Ronkainen the Robber.” There are variations of the tale, but one has it that when Ronkainen and his gang would rob nearby villages, they often made off with the local women by carrying them over their shoulders. Another says Ronkainen would train his band of thieves by having them carry heavy sacks on their backs—which eventually evolved into a sport.

OK, with the local cultural traditions to consider, we can let Finland slide with the “wife carrying.” But as far as oddball sporting events go, “wife carrying” is just the tip of the iceberg. Finland practically leads the world in the creation of bizarre sporting events. It’s curious why they became such fertile ground for so many non-traditional sports. Because it wasn’t always that way.

During the first half of the 20th century, Finland was a powerhouse in the global sports arena, winning an average of 24 medals at the Summer Olympic Games between 1908 and 1948. They would go into decline after that, not because their elite athleticism was slipping, but because the rest of the world caught up. Some say they were punching above their weight at the time. After all, Finland is the most sparsely populated country in the European Union. From 1992 to 2012, Finland averaged 4 Olympic medals. At the 2016 games in Rio, they took home just one—a bronze. And for the first time ever, at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, Finland failed to pick up a single medal.

The Finns didn’t give up and just grow fat and lazy, however. In fact, they’re consistently ranked as among the physically active people on the continent. And Finland has some 30,000 sporting facilities spread over the country—said to be more per capita than any country in the world. With endless forests and some 200,000 lakes, Finlanders are guaranteed public access to almost all outdoor lands and bodies of water for recreational purposes. And with up to six weeks of vacation time for most Finns, they have the time to take advantage of their pristine landscapes and enjoy the great outdoors.

Straddling the Arctic Circle, remember that Finland also endures long, dark, and punishing winters—which can make anyone a bit stir crazy. So, to get ready for summer, maybe they came up with all these “non-traditional” sporting events to let them release all that pent-up energy. Either that, or it’s the alcohol.

Some of the bizarre sporting events that originated in Finland

• Cell phone throwing—Begun to encourage recycling in 2000 by Nokia, whose headquarters are in Finland, contestants throw their mobile phones as far as they can. Categories include traditional over the shoulder toss with farthest distance winning; and freestyle, with the winner judged by the most creative choreography. You may want to call your mother before this event.

• Swamp soccer world championships—Running on soft bogs is physically demanding, so this sport began in Finland in 1998 as a form of exercise for soldiers and athletes. It’s such a messy, muddy environment, the rules had to be modified from European football for the swamp version. There are some 300 organized swamp soccer teams around the world that compete in this down and dirty competition.

• Berry picking world championships—Finland’s summer pastime of picking wild lingonberries turned competitive in 1998, the first year of the world championships in the town of Suomussalmi. A berry-picking rake is allowed and the berry picking champion is based on the weight of berries picked in one hour. The current world record is 61.69 pounds.

• Kicksledding world championships—A type of sled you kick with your feet, the kicksled has been used to get around in Finland for centuries. It turned into a serious sport in 1988, the first year of the Kicksled World Championships. Some compete for fun or charity, but others train all year for the opportunity to kick their way to victory.

• Air guitar world championships—Yep, Finland took the lead in establishing the annual air guitar world championships in the town of Oulu in 1996.

• Mosquito killing world championships— The buzz about this competition held in Pelkosenniemi since 1995 is that a local Finn named Henri Pellonpaa killed a world-record 21 bugs in five minutes.

• World sauna championships—Began in 1999 in Heinola, the world sauna championships had to come to a close in 2010, when a competitor sadly died after suffering third-degree burns.

• Competitive hobby-horsing—At least 10,000 Finns—nearly all of them between the ages of 10 and 18—have taken up competitive hobby-horsing. Yep, they really do trot around and hurdle obstacles while riding on the wooden toy horses.

• Heavy metal knitting world championships—Finns love heavy metal—there is said to be at least 50 heavy metal bands for every 100,000 people in the country. And oddly enough, thousands of metal heads are also enthusiastic knitters. So of course, they combined the genres for one weird world championship (Purl Jam anyone?). To give you an idea how much Finns love their metal bands, in Kerava you can attend mass at the Church of the Heavy Metal Trinity, a house of worship that embraces Finland’s heavy metal culture. Amen.

• Tree hugging world championships—With almost 75% of Finland’s land mass covered in forest, a competition to decide who expresses their passion for trees the most was inevitable. The cuddly event takes place annually in Levi, Finnish Lapland. Hug away nature lovers.

• Boot throwing world championships—Throwing shoes in some cultures is deeply insulting. In Finland, they do it because they think it’s funny. Boot throwing championships have taken place every year since 1976. While it is very funny, competitors take it a lot more seriously than you’d expect in the hopes of walking away with the championship.

Bring your wife on our Fjord Cruise & Lapland: Norway, Finland & the Arctic Circle adventure and try the sport out for yourself!